- Michigan is not the birthplace of euchre in the U.S., but it's possible the card game made its way to the Midwest via Pennsylvania and New Orleans.
- Euchre was likely brought over by Alsatian immigrants — people from the Alsace region of France with deep roots in German culture, language, and heritage.
- While euchre may not have originated in Michigan, the state has become the unofficial center of the game today.
For many Michiganders, euchre (pronounced yoo-kur) feels like a quintessentially Michigan game, but was it actually created here? Long story short, no. But the story of how the trick-taking game made its way to the Mitten state and became one of its most popular card games is an interesting one.
Euchre is believed to have roots in a 17th-century card game called Juckerspiel from the Alsace region of France. Alsatians are from the area along the Rhine River where France and Germany meet.
Some historians think it was German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania who brought the game of euchre with them from Europe, but that doesn't fully explain the thousands of references that retired University of Nevada researcher Steven Zink found in digitized Southern newspapers dating back to the Civil War.
“The one misconception that is incredibly invalid is that euchre was always a Midwestern game… that is not true,” he explained.
Trace the path of Alsatian immigrants into the U.S., Zink said, and you'll find they settled in two key places: Pennsylvania and New Orleans. "Euchre was prevalent throughout the South," he said. In some ways, it was even more popular there than the Midwest.
It was the Civil War, Zink believes, that spread the game north to the Midwest and, eventually, to Michigan.
“The troops had a great deal of time on their hands. In fact, in the southwestern region, they even called truces and played cards across lines, mainly because the Southern troops had no cards anymore, but they knew how to play euchre,” he added.
Once the Civil War ended, according to Zink, Midwestern farmers shipping goods down the Mississippi would often spend extended time in New Orleans. It was there, he said, that they likely learned to play euchre before making the long journey home by horse or on foot.
Even though euchre was not initially a big deal in Michigan, Zink considers the Mitten State the center of the game today.
But if you’re a Michigander who never learned to play euchre (like me)–or you want to brush up before the family’s summer barbecue, let me bring you into the fold.
Euchre is a trick-taking card game for four players. There are two teams, and partners sit across the table from each other.
It uses a stripped-down deck of 24 cards—just the nines through aces.
The goal is to be the first team to reach 10 points by winning tricks. A trick is simply one round of play. In each round, players put down one card, and whoever plays the highest card wins that round and collects the four cards.
- The Deal: Each player is dealt five cards, and one card is turned face-up to kick off the process of choosing trump. The trump suit beats any card from another suit--even if it's a higher value.
- Choosing Trump: Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, everyone can either accept the face-up card's suit as trump or pass. If everyone passes, the card is turned down and players can name any other suit. The team that names trump is called the "makers."
- Going Alone: If a player thinks their hand is good enough to win on their own, they can choose to play a round alone to try to win more points.
- Card Rankings: Once trump is set, the card rankings shift. The highest card is the Jack of the trump suit—called the right bower—followed by the Jack of the same-color suit, the left bower, then ace, king, queen, ten, and nine of trump.
- Gameplay: The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick. Players must follow suit if they can. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick—unless someone plays a trump card, in which case the highest trump takes it.
- Winning Tricks: There are five tricks per hand. Winning tricks is how you score, and your team needs to win at least three of the five tricks to earn points.
Scoring in euchre works like this:
- Makers win 3 or 4 tricks → 1 point
- Makers win all 5 tricks (a "march") → 2 points
- Makers win fewer than 3 tricks (getting "euchred") → the other team gets 2 points
- Going alone and winning all 5 → 4 points
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